But while the usage of mobile audio continues to grow, the Android operating system has struggled to keep up.

One area where it lags is the lack of a system-wide equalizer. Sure, some apps offer their own equalizers, but there’s no native way to adjust the output for any audio.

You need a third-party solution. Here are four of the best equalizer apps in the Google Play Store.

(Note: You should only have one equalizer app installed. Multiple equalizers can cause compatibility issues.)

Understanding Equalizer Apps

Before I dive into the list, there is one important point to clarify: all the equalizer apps that work without requiring root access do the same thing.

That’s because they all rely on the Android AudioEffects class to control the Equalizer, Virtualizer, BassBoost, PresetReverb, and EnvironmentalReverb.

This has a few significant repercussions for users. Firstly, the only differences between the apps are the user interfaces and the additional features – the effect on your audio will be identical. Secondly, the equalizers will not be able to control more than one app at a time. Finally, the equalizers you download work in the same way as the equalizers packaged into apps like Spotify and Google Music. If you only use one service and it already has an equalizer, downloading an additional app is unnecessary.

Because of these realities, this list only has the four best options.

1. Equalizer

In my opinion, Equalizer has the best features, it’s the easiest to use, and it has the best interface.

The free version comes with 11 presets (Normal, Classical, Dance, Flat, Folk, Metal, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Pop, Rock, and Latin) as well as a bass boost, surround sound, and a sound amplifier. Tap on the preset you want to activate it.

The pro version is available for $1.99. It adds a way to save your own custom presets, the ability to add custom presets to your home screen widget, and allows the ID3 tagging feature to work with streaming apps like Spotify.

2. Equalizer & Bass Booster

Equalizer & Bass Booster does a lot more than the name suggests. In addition to the bass boost, there’s a five-band equalizer (60 Hz, 230 Hz, 910 Hz, 3.6 kHz, and 14 kHz), a 15-level volume booster, and a surround sound control.

Aesthetically, the developer has designed the app to look like it’s an MP3 player that floats in the middle of your screen. There are easy-to-use dials that let you change the volume, bass, and surround sound.

3. Equalizer Music Player Booster

Equalizer Music Player Booster is a three-in-one app: an MP3 player, a music equalizer, and a bass booster. It has an “Editor’s Choice” award in the Play Store.

The equalizer has five bands (Bass, Low, Mid, Upper, High). There are 10 presets to choose from, and you can also create and save custom presets.

It will only work with audio (songs or podcasts) stored on your device – it is not compatible with Spotify or other streaming apps. However, don’t let that put you off — as mentioned at the start of the article, the equalizers provided by Spotify and dedicated third-party apps are identical in terms of functionality.

The MP3 player is easy to navigate. It’ll automatically find any audio you have saved on your device, it supports crossfading (up to 20 seconds), it has a visualizer (though it’s not as impressive as Equalizer & Bass Booster’s visualizer), and there’s a sleep timer.

4. Equalizer Ultra Booster EQ

I’ve made Equalizer Ultra Booster EQ my final pick for one main reason: it boasts a 10-band equalizer. From my research, it was the only non-root 10-band app in the store. If you know of any others, be sure to let me know in the comments.

In additional to the 10-bands, you’ll also find a virtualizer and a reverb dial, as well as sliders for a bass boost and a treble boost.

If you’re happy to spend $1.50, you can unlock “Ultra Mode.” It has some cool additional features, including a preamp, ultra bass, enhanced stereo effects, crossfading, and playback speed adjustment.

Despite the benefits, there is a trade-off. The app is nowhere near as straightforward to use or as pleasing on the eye as my three previous recommendations. The font it deploys looks like something out of a bad sci-fi movie, and the silver-on-black theme can be difficult to read.

Nonetheless, if those extra bands are important to you, it’s a solid choice.

Which Equalizer Do You Use?

I hope my four choices have helped you understand what the core features offered by Android equalizer apps are. Which app you ultimately decide to download depends on what is most important to you: ease-of-use, graphics, multiple bands, or additional features.

Now it’s your turn. Which equalizer app do you have installed on your phone? What are its best features? Why does it deserve to be part of this list?

You can leave your thoughts, feedback, and recommendations in the comments below.

Joel, thanks for your helpful article. I use Google Cast (a/k/a Google Home) to play my music over my stereo instead of on my android phone via the Chromecast Audio device. Do any of these equalizers affect the Chromecast output stream? I've fiddled with a couple of these and they seem to alter what comes out of my phone but not the Chromecast signal sent to the stereo. Any guidance you could give on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the review. I was using Equalizer on my Nexus 7 tablet, but was never really happy with the equalizer which degraded the sound. The bass booster on Equalizer made the bass sound muddy.

Based on your review, I tried Music Volume EQ. The Music Volume EQ's bass boost produces a much cleaner sound on my Nexus 7 tablet. But, the equalizer is nothing to write home about.
At least I have a clean base sound.

You fail to mention that the first app, Equalizer, has a third screen with effects. On it are variable bass boost, virtualizer and reverb. This is what makes it really useful. The virtualizer effect is superb. It creates a virtual sound stage which considerably opens up the music beyond the headphone syndrome without affecting the tone in any significant way and the reverb adds depth to it.

Since all these programs all offer pretty much the same controls they must all be putting a skin on an API that is provided by Android rather than processing any sound themselves (a pass-through sound processing app is not possible on any smart phone, Android included, without difficult kernel hacking) so they will all sound and function identically and it's just a matter of choosing the skin you like best.

Well, an equalizer by definition does nothing more than alter the sound wave at specific frequencies. It's hard to distinguish oneself as the "best alterer of sound" since it's pretty straightforward. The difference between the apps is not only the presentation (which is important) but also the additional features, like the bass boost, reverb, etc. that you mentioned.

I tend to use Pandora as my background study player and would like to have the volume adjusted so that the various "songs" are the same loudness. I assume that this could be done by Pandora, or by using a sound compression/expansion app like these equalizaion apps. I looked at them and the play store and did not find any app that did adjust the volume so that either the various songs were at the same sound level or so that the output volume was expanded (if mp3 does not encode the entire dynamic range of the song?).

I think what you're looking for is something called "replay gain." I haven't looked into any apps that strictly offer replay gain only, but some of the more advanced music player apps have that feature. I'm not sure if you can replay gain Pandora, though. Perhaps you could try asking over at MUO Answers?

Dan is a British expat living in Mexico. He is currently a Senior Writer for MakeUseOf. At various times, he has been the Social Editor, Creative Editor, and Finance Editor. Prior to his writing career, he was a Financial Consultant.